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cyberbarf

WELL, FAILURE IS AN OPTION SITE NEWS

How is the new site working out? It ain't.

Technology is a strange beast; a genius child whose tantrums can be silently annoying.

In academia, it is publish or perish. In web page publishing, it is publish or frustration.

We have been fiddling with new web page design software for two months. It is a very basic designer, with a few templates and some interactive features. It is a drop and drag formatter which works fine. The toolbox is limited in its features, especially when it comes to text variations. It has an automatic re-formatting feature to stack columns for mobile devices.

The user manual was a sparse power point presentation. There was plenty of trial and error learning curve for input quirks. Things seemed to go well until we tried to ping the remote site. It failed to connect. After trying to figure out all the FTP settings (not reviewed in the last 18 years), we got a test page to allegedly upload to the remote host folder.

But success was fleeting since we had not actually published a new page to the old site host. After many variations of page naming protocols, we got the new program to upload the main page file and its dependent files to the host server. When we checked to see if it loaded properly, the new cyberbarf home page was our September issue. Failure. A log seemed to show that the files were uploaded, but the main page some how is not recognized by the host server. It may have been the design program adding an improper extension. More trial and error, and more of the same publishing failure. That is why the October issue is late. It is also why the old software program continues to be used for this issue. It is a pain but a dependable, friendly pain.

The failure did give us pause to re-evaluate the original software choice. The program looked too basic. The mobile version looked much better and tighter than the desktop version. It seemed to be more of a downgrade from the now retro-DTP style that has been the cyberbarf look. Since there was not a huge investment in the new software, a decision to abandon that ship is an easy option.

There are many things that can be done. Try to maintain the status quo. Try to find a new, better web page design program. Try to figure out why the host server is so fickle. It does take time away from content creation. And Ski's sanity.

cyberbarf

UNDER THE INFLUENCE E-CELEBRITY

There is a new career path for many young people. They start YouTube channels to tout their opinions, skills, hobbies or interests in order to get a critical mass of subscribers so sponsors (or target advertisers) monetize their internet fame. The are called Influencers because they have the direct connection to consumers so they can influence their purchasing decisions.

Some of the most popular Influencers deal with fashion and beauty tips. Women and cosmetics have exploded in popularity and commerce. In a Seoul department store, the first two floors are devoted to beauty and women's products. Women line up early on Saturday morning before the store opens to get a free makeover at one of the brand counters. Korean cosmetics, product tips and models are a growing force in the Korean Wave export movement across Asia and the Americas.

The U.S. has its strange media influencers, namely the Kardashian clan, who have made a fortune for doing nothing tangible or productive in society. But celebrity endorsements is not new. Radio stars, movie stars and TV actors have made commercials for just about every product and service. But today, the fragmentation of entertainment to various new platforms have had advertisers scramble to find a more niche, direct audience. The rise of the YouTube community of content providers - - - young, brash and popular - - - the platform to sneak product placement to outright approvals.

Social media marketing companies have developed plans to tap into the popularity of YouTubers, Instagram stars and Twitch gamers. Marketing companies look to three areas of engagement:

Marketers want their product to have sufficient reach. Reach is defined as the number of followers or subscribers an influencer has. It can be calculated through the number of subscribers, followers, or the number of visitors to their website.

Marketers also want relevance to its target audience. To make a decent impact on your target audiences, the influencer needs to be relevant to product or service field. In other words, their niche should align with your industry, product, or brand. A gaming company may want to hook up on a popular gamer's streams.

But raw numbers are not enough. As we know, subscriber and follower numbers can be manipulated, exaggerated or bought through bot companies. Marketers want some concrete interaction between the influencer and their audience. An influencer should have a good engagement rate, the number of interactions of their followers to their posts or content. That is why so many influencers have real time chats, contests and other means to engage their audience.

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has clamped down on stealth advertising on Internet content. Disguised ads as news stories now have to be labeled as sponsored content or advertising copy. Likewise, social media content creators must disclose whether they are being compensated from companies for using, showing or soft selling products. The reason is that subliminal advertising could be harmful, especially when the audience for much of social media content is young people. But advertisers like to place their products in plain sight but not obvious to the viewer.

According to medium.com, “influencer marketing” increased by 325% in Google searches over 2017. Making this the fastest growing online acquisition method of the year. Marketers are expected to invest an average budget of $25,000 to $50,000 into multifaceted influencer campaigns this year. For each dollar spent on influencer marketing, marketers see an average of $7.65 in earned media value returned. The biggest platform for influencer marketing can be found on Instagram. Last year saw a whopping 12.9 million brand sponsored influencer posts. And that number is estimated to double in 2018, creating an estimated market size of nearly $1.7 billion.

The biggest areas of creator content growth is beauty-cosmetics, fashion, food and travel. These areas correspond directly with Millennial lifestyle choices - - - where the experience is more important than material wealth. A beauty tip expert in Asia can make a living just by making videos. But for most YouTube creators, the bump advertising yields to meager returns of a few thousand to tens of thousands of revenue. It is the product marketing money, if you can get it, that can increase income to $100,000 or more. But those creators who create daily content, or elaborate bits, find themselves scraping less than minimum wage after taking into consideration camera, equipment, editing and staff expenses. But the goal may be experience in creating broadcast content to be picked up by cable networks or film/TV studios.

The Age of Influencer is just beginning in social media. As money begins to pour into the hands of creators, it may be short term flooded income stream until the next platform or direct marketing scheme is developed by advertisers to influence potential consumers.

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